THE 
AMERICAN NATURALIST 
Vou. AAA: November, 1896. 359 
PINEY BRANCH (D. C.) QUARRY WORKSHOP AND ITS 
IMPLEMENTS: 
By Tuomas WItson? 
Prof. W. H. Holmes, one of our most accomplished and ver- 
satile members, on Nov. 16, 1889, read before our Society an 
extended report of his investigations in the quartzite boulder 
quarry at Piney Branch, which was published in the American 
Anthropologist, January, 1890, pp. 1-26, and is being reprinted 
in the 15th Annual Rep., Bur. Ethnology. The work described 
consisted of an excavation up the face of the hill near Piney 
Branch, in the form of trenches, one 75 feet long and some 
places 10 feet deep, and other shorter but similar trenches and 
soundings in the same neighborhood. Atthe conclusion of his 
paper, I stood up and complimented him upon the character of | 
the work, and saying that heretofore speculation and theory in 
the office and with pen and ink, had been employed, instead of 
actual excavation in the field with the pick and shovel. I 
congratulated him and the Society upon the new era inaugur- 
ated. I said the fact that I did not agree to his conclusions - 
had naught to do with this question and did not prevent me 
1 Read before the Anthropological Society, Tuesday Evening, December 4, 
1894. : 
2Curator of Prehistoric Anthropology, U. S. National Museum, Washington, 
D. ©. n 
61 
